Soul & Ego Shaking, Blur Between Daydreams & Awakening
by Aster Lawrence
Summary: Reality is cruel. But does he even belong in this reality? What exactly is true? The world in front of his eyes or in his dreams? These are questions Lelouch would like answered. After encountering Funeral Parlour, he is locked in battle that will make or break the future. "If someone wins, the fighting will end."


It was a clear night with few clouds, the full moon being reflected by the river across the park, flowing with a faint sound and gentle pace. A gentle breeze swept the atmosphere, and Lelouch opened his eyes slightly, the wind blowing his long, black bangs off his forehead.

He was lying on a bench situated near a tall tree, its branches laden with leaves swaying in the air. Lelouch wondered why he had fallen asleep as he swung his legs down to the soft grass and sat up, rubbing his eyes. '_Ah, my head aches_.' He thought.

In front of him was a foot path, simple gravel covering the dirt trail beneath. A four feet tall railing ran along the track that curved outward and steeped at a 45 degree angle and sloped down towards the river.

Lelouch Lamperouge was seventeen years old. He had tall, slim build and handsome foreign features, his skin fairer than the Japanese natives. His eyes were his most charming feature, violet in color. His hair was long but neat, kept above the collar of his shirt while his bangs covered most of his forehead almost all the time.

He wore a white shirt, the collar loosened and sleeves folded upwards, evidently wrinkled from being worn throughout the day and were not even properly tucked in his black pants. On one side of the bench lay a matching black jacket with golden trimmings with the symbols of Ashford Academy on both sides of the collar.

All was still, except for the cool wind and the timeless sky, littered with twinkling stars near the outskirts of Tokyo city. Lelouch felt as if he wasn't worthy of such a peaceful sight. Sometimes he did things he had no idea of, other times he felt as if everything around him was a lie.

'_What could be wrong with me? Or what could be wrong with this World?_' Lelouch wondered.

Lelouch's mother, Marianne died when he was only five. She was ill and weak ever since she gave birth to him. Originally Lelouch had lived in Britain, where his father currently was, but his mother had Japanese roots.

This was why he was transferring to a Japanese high school. The moment the news of his transfer reached Lelouch's father, Charles, tore him a check there and then and sent him to the airport with a driver.

The family, if he could use that word, was quite well off. But Charles could care less for Lelouch now that Marianne was gone and he sent his son to a country infested with the Apocalypse Virus without a second thought.

Lelouch got up, picking up his folded jacket and shook it, hooked two fingers in the collar and carried it over his shoulder and began walking, other hand in the pocket of his pants.

* * *

A man stood atop the highest point of the mega structure that was known as GHQ. He wore a white coat with black clothing beneath, his wavy blond hair fluttering in the wind as his icy blue eyes observed a figure on the outskirts of the city, a weary teen lugging his coat.

"He's here. Yes, he's fine. Does anyone know his name? Oh. Lelouch is it." The man, youthful in appearance, said. He answered and questioned himself, but it was not single mind he was communicating with. Yuu was his name.

"Ah, his memories? I fabricated them moments ago. No. As if that would ever happen." Yuu smirked.

* * *

In his pocket he had found a four inch cylindrical object, made of both metal and plastic. Upon pressing a button a display projected out in the form of a blue square. It was, Lelouch concluded, a cell phone, but its functions and capabilities were cutting edge. There was also an earpiece in his pocket as well.

Lelouch found an email pertaining to his acceptance at Tennozu High. He read it all when he reached back to the royal suite of Mapleleaf Hotel, a luxurious project launched by GHQ for foreigners.

The building was thirty stories tall, and Lelouch's adobe was at the very top. His suite was enormous. It consisted of two bedrooms, a terrace and a lounge, a fridge that had drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) and branded foods from around the world.

When he arrived there was a huge basket of fruits and a tray of assorted chocolate present on the expensive wooden table in the lounge. Sliding glass windows opened to the terrace and gave a breathtaking view of the city with its many skyscrapers.

Lelouch stepped into the cool night air, enjoying the sight. He was currently engaged in a chess match on his phone, the holographic screen operating by touch as he commanded his pieces across the board.

Chess had always come to him naturally. He was undefeated as far as his knowledge went, playing since the age of ten. Lelouch was playing black; he always did.

His opponents stood no chance as Lelouch managed to checkmate them before they could even check him. As it was he was barely spending more than five to ten minutes per match, his difficulty set at "Master" which meant a maximum of 15 seconds per turn.

The prodigy made his opponents forget about some piece on the board until some turns later he sprung the trap with such elaborate planning that he had a counter for every counter possible and even those would eventually give Lelouch victory.

He had the gene which gave him power to predict the many results the board could have within the following turns and manipulate the flow of the game to his liking. Back in Britain he used to gamble, but he played for the sake of playing. He spent the money on whims.

_-Would you like to accept a challenge from Triton?-_

The screen said after Lelouch was finished with another boring match. '_Interesting name._' He thought and accepted.

* * *

"You play Chess, Gai?" Shibungi asked the charismatic leader of the Funeral Parlor, peering over his shoulder. Gai Tsutsugami, also known as Triton, was the enigmatic and awe-inspiring leader of Japan's largest but unknown rebellion group against GHQ.

Gai was seventeen years old, tall, lean yet well built, with long flowing blond hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a black shirt and pants, his uniform coat off.

Shibungi had silver long hair, straighter than Gai's, wore small, round glasses and had a few patches of damaged skin on the left side of his face, some on the side of his neck as well. He wore a long, white lab coat.

"Chess and war are alike, only in war I have more pieces." Gai said smoothly.

_-Zero has accepted your challenge-_

"Oh. He'll even let me play white." Gai said wryly. He hadn't much choice with how Zero had worded it. The game began.

Gai started slowly, moving a knight on the first turn. Zero made a strange move and moved a pawn from the front of his king.

"Isn't he supposed to protect the king?" Shibungi asked, already a spectator. "He is. I guess he's unique." Gai said before making his move. After a few more turns Gai found himself in a tight spot, despite having put Zero in check a while ago.

Zero had made an extreme move. Gai should have been more cautious, but perhaps it was his own protective stance of his queen that Zero had done what he did. Gai thought he had dealt a good blow when he took out a black night with a white pawn, he thought he had forced Zero to leave his knight like that.

No. While he had eliminated a knight, Zero moved his bishop from one end of the board diagonally to another, striking down the white queen. At the same time, Zero kept his king moving, making hard to trap him, until finally he was just three blocks away from Gai's king.

Gai fought defensively then, but then he realized he had already lost. He had been too dependent on the queen for his plans. Now his King was trapped between a rook, two pawns and the last of his escape cut off by the black king, just a square away.

If Gai made one move to avoid the rook and pawns that held him from moving forward or to the side, the only option was to advance diagonally, right in front of the black king and forcing checkmate himself. Nor could he take out a piece to break free of the amazing formation that only a true master could make.

'_Well done Zero. I applaud you._' Gai thought silently.

_-Checkmate. Zero wins-_

The screen read, making obvious what had been apparent to both the players for some time already. Gai noticed that Shibungi was not around to witness his loss. The match had drawn on for quite some time and the advisor had already retired, it seemed. Gai thought well to do the same.

* * *

'_You were good Triton._' Lelouch spoke in his mind. A compliment from him was worth a lot. Looking at the time, the victorious teen thought it best to sleep. He didn't want to doze off on his first day at school, as was his habit.

As it was, Lelouch had woken up early, showered in what he thought was an unnecessarily large bathroom and dressed in his new school uniform. His hair was longer that what the school rules dictated, but he didn't want to cut it.

His foreigner status would let him get away with it, and proabably a whole lot of things because of GHQ's discriminatory treatment. Bending the school rules was no problem.

When he reached school, the discipline committee said nothing to him. They were rather cold. Lelouch almost wished to be chastised then. Finding his way to the staff room, he stood there until his homeroom teacher came and took him to his class.

"Class, today we're having a transfer student. Please introduce yourself." His speech had been curt, despite his cheery demeanor. If Lelouch felt something, he did not show it.

'_Can't be helped then._' "I am Lelouch Lamperouge. Feel free to talk to me. Please take care of me." He said in perfect and clear Japanese, before bowing slightly.

"Right then. Please take a seat at the back." The teacher gestured and Lelouch complied quietly, sitting one desk away from the window at the corner of the classroom.

The boy sitting near the window had light brown hair with a slight blond streak on one side. '_Quite unique._' Lelouch thought. The boy seemed lost in his own thoughts, but looked in Lelouch's direction once, possibly afraid to make eye-contact.

The lesson began after students gave their attendance. The boy's name was Ouma Shu, Lelouch now knew. When the time finally came for recess, Lelouch was left alone.

He wasn't being approached, save for the curious, observing glances from his classmates and also from the students of neighbouring classes that came to see him. He felt like some exotic animal on display at a zoo. Shu had left with some upbeat girl who he had greeted as Hare a while ago.

"Hey," Lelouch asked a girl next to him, a short brunette with glasses. "Where would I find Shu?" The girl stammered a bit before telling him she didn't know. But a garrulous and loud boy named Souta was only too eager to show him the way after he overheard.

"Hey, you even listening?" Souta asked after a while of walking. Lelouch had tuned him out after his first few sentences. Lelouch smiled politely in response.

"The Filmmakers Club sounds interesting." He said. Well, he wasn't that rude now."I'm glad you like it. We're here already. I took a short cut though, you know." Souta said.

In front of them was two story warehouse, a crumbling old building. The huge metal doors opened and revealed Shu and Hare working on a computer, placed beneath a gallery that could be reached by the two staircases on either side. The floor was made of aged concrete blocks that stood out at varous places and had patches of grass growin between the spaces and cracks.

"But that soundtrack isn't quite-" Shu was saying but was cut off by Souta. "Hey! Guess who decided to come meet you. Aren't you getting popular Shu?" Ouma froze, seeing Lelouch Lamperouge standing next to his talkative 'friend'.

"Isn't he the new student in your class?" Hare asked Shu but he had suddenly frozen. "Earth to Shu, you there?" She waved a hand in front of his face. "Ah! Sorry Hare." Shu got up from his chair and flicked the monitor off.

"Lelouch, wasn't it?" Shu said. The dark-haired teen nodded. "Ouma Shu." Lelouch said to him in recognition and stepped forward to shake his hand. "I'm Hare! Shu's friend." The girl introduced and stepped forward to take his slender hand as well. She giggled.

"Your hand feels like a girls'." Lelouch gave her an amused look, cocking and eyebrow before pointing with his thumb in the back and said.

"And he's Souta, but you'd know already." It wasn't meant to be so much of a joke but the person behind him laughed while Hare cracked a smile.

"So you wanted to see me?" Shu asked. "I was wondering if you'd show me around the school after classes. The teacher forgot to ask anyone." The timid boy nodded somewhat shyly.

Lelouch was walking out before he turned and said very casually. "Nice to meet you all. Can I come here again?" Hare beamed and nodded while Souta gave an energetic "Yes!" Shu remained quiet, focused on his computer. He was hard to read.

The rest of the day went by without anything interesting happening so Lelouch began playing chess under the table using his phone. After classes ended, true to his word, Shu showed him around.

There was a gym, an auditorium, a swimming pool, a track field, a huge cafeteria, the other classes, the various clubs. Shu asked Lelouch if he would like to join any club to which he shrugged. There was a chess club, but Lelouch got bored in a match midway with the president of the club and ended it quickly.

"I'm good with computers, maybe I'll lend you hand with video editing." Lelouch said. Hacking was more of his forte, setting up fake ID's to get into casinos and other places he wasn't allowed to.

"Sure thing." Shu said, still pondering in his own mind. Lelouch wasn't the one to pry into other people's business and after the tour was over, bid farewell to his classmate.

Lelouch thought it was going to be another boring day in his life. As it turns out, he couldn't be more wrong. He was walking along a hospital associated with Sephirah Genomics, GHQ's recent research group, when there was a huge bomb went off in the laboratory building.

The ground shook and windows of shops shattered. The noise sent more than one driver off balance causing accidents along the road. Adrenaline coursing through his body, Lelouch weaved his way through the wrecked cars and panicked people towards the source of the explosion.

Thick smoke was escaping from the main building of Sephirah Genomics. Endlaves and helicopters were also rushing to the scene. Anti-Bodies for sure, Lelouch deduced.

The sun was going down already, it was dusk. He should have been heading back but his legs were carrying to another place already, despite the huge robots firing trampling through the streets and security personnel making people evacuate.

Lelouch felt his whole body shiver, trembling with excitement and fear. Suddenly there was another explosion, this one nearer to the ground and the Anti-Body endlaves shook. Lelouch's legs gave away and he also fell to the ground. He got up quickly, covered in dust.

It was mayhem near the building. Lelouch was already at the laboratory's entrance, pieces of rubble fallen from the building blocking the way to the entrance. He hid behind the rubble and saw a strange sight. An Endlave moving with great expertise suddenly turned and began to take out its comrades.

'_Or were they comrades to begin with?_' Lelouch thought excitedly. Something huge was going on, more than a mere terrorist attack.

"Hey! You need to get out of here civilian!" A voice called from behind him. Lelouch turned and found a security guard with long blond hair staring at him furious, a cap pulled low over his face.

Lelouch held up his hands in mock surrender. "Do you know who I am? What is your rank and name?" A smirk graced his handsome face.

"Sergeant Shinichi Radcliff." He said. "And your ID number?" Lelouch pressed further, not giving the other a chance to question him. "090786014869." The guy retorted smoothly.

"You're not even a part of security forces are you?" Lelouch said arrogantly. No one bothered to remember the long and useless ID numbers, except for perfectionist perpetrators.

Tsutsugami Gai's eyes hardened before he moved, quick as a snake and seconds later Lelouch found his arm twisted behind his back, unmistakably a pistol pressed to his back.

"Who are you?" Gai asked coldly, ready to pull the trigger.

* * *

A/N: New story guys. Thanks for reading! I'd immensely appreciate any reviews and alerts. So to clear things off first, this is going to deviate from canon of both animes as I create something further. Seriously, going over canon scenes with Mary Sues is just not my style. Naturally, writing shall allow me to give more depth to characters. So guys like please give me reviews and stuff I feel so rejected after writing and not receiving any feedback ;A; Im in exams so this is more like a teaser of the story. I'll begin working faster at the end of April. On the plus side I'll have time to think of more ideas. :D Review!


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